Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

Tor actually understood why. The idea of being able to relate to another person almost caused his mouth to drop open, but he controlled it. She was putting him on the spot and still thought of him as important, not someone to ask favors of. How he hadn't seen that before Tor didn't know. Or, really he did. It was the Green pattern thing. It made it hard to see himself as valid and real, even in other people's eyes. Luckily being without that hadn't turned him into a heel. He still had a life time of habit to fall back on after all, if he got confused as to what to do.

  "I can do that love. What time do you need to be woken up, so that you can eat?"

  "About eleven? Petra said she'd send someone for me, so I wouldn't oversleep." The cute blond yawned hugely, patting her mouth. It was only about four in the afternoon or so, which gave him some time to walk her to their room. He took her hand gently, trying to enjoy the time they had together, in case it ran out soon.

  "You're amazing, you know that Ali? First mate on a ship and everything. I've never been anything but a ships cook." He nudged her with his shoulder.

  "Well... and a ship builder, which is decent I guess, but first mate is pretty fantastic. You know I've never steered this thing myself? I don't think anyone except Petra has. Not on a real mission like this. I love you. I really do. I know that I haven't always seemed like it, but that doesn't mean you aren't special to me. Remember that, will you? Whatever happens." He kissed her but just on the cheek, doing anything more would get her going and keep her from getting the rest she needed. Plus, his body still wasn't participating properly. That kind of made it hard. Or rather lacking in hardness made it difficult.

  A bit unfair too. If he disappeared in a few weeks it would have been nice to spend some time doing fun things with his wife and Trice. Possibly at the same time. He'd never done that, not with them.

  He felt a little guilty over the idea, but realized that had to do with his country upbringing, nothing else. Sex was fun and not bad or evil. People were made to feel that way because of ancient control systems used to keep them feeling guilty. Jealousy itself was largely manufactured, though people in Two Bends probably couldn't see it that way, having lived it their whole lives.

  The information came from the new memories of another time, but it felt about right. He didn't have to feel bad about sex, not with anyone.

  It was still off the table for the time being. Maybe later though? He hoped so. It was one of the good things in life. Too much so to ignore or have issues about.

  His wife laid on the bed and murmured that she loved him, getting a hug and another kiss as she drifted off. Tor changed her amulet so that she ware a loose shift of silk, all in white since it was her favorite clothing color and then backed out of the room slowly, watching her sleep, head resting on the pillow full daylight coming through the giant window. It was a four foot diameter circle of shield material, but it kept the rooms from being claustrophobic. Not that a space that large would set anyone off. The rooms were huge for a ship.

  The Austran vessel Tor had been on had tiny rooms, about an eighth the size of the ones here and those had to be shared with several individuals too. He'd gotten his own, but had noticed that the ones for the crewmen seemed to be even smaller than what he'd had. That had been a military ship though and with more people on board.

  The door was shut gently, so as to not wake her. She was going to be responsible for them all while they slept, so he wanted her well rested. Otherwise they might end up in Tellerand or Afrak.

  Tor walked quickly toward the kitchen at the back of the ship, not wanting to shirk his duties, even though the whole being taken over thing was kind of a big deal. To him at least. People still needed to eat and really, sitting alone and worrying over the whole thing wouldn't save him. He had to know more, and just didn't. It would have stolen his breath away before, but the truth was he felt... good. Better than he ever had.

  There was no worry, or self doubt, just... him. From what he could tell it wasn't Cordes showing through either, not yet, that would feel different when it happened, if he didn't just blink out of existence. There had already been a taste of that when the man had spoken through him.

  No, this was just natural Tor. What he really would have been like if he hadn't had that crap put in his head by Burks when he was just a baby. He might even have had a real life this way, he thought. Not just a bunch of events that his own angst and feeling of responsibility for everyone else had gotten him into.

  The idea didn't make him feel angry though. He was capable of it, but whatever had been setting him off before was gone, at least for now. He didn't have a lot to be angry at for the time being. It was like the world had changed in the course of a few hours. It was only inside himself, but he had to like it. Most of the worst things in his life where gone now. In the span of a few heartbeats. It didn't make him perfect, probably less so than before, but he sure felt better.

  All the Ancients were sitting in the dining area, with Trice as well as his mother, brother and sister, apparently talking about him. They all looked at him with scared expressions at least. Trice spoke to him first, walking over and giving him a hug that got an impolite growl from his little sister. Tiera wasn't Trice's biggest fan, because of the way she'd made fun of him in public, causing him to break up with her. It seemed kind of petty now and unimportant. He could remember the feelings and why he'd felt them, but it wouldn't be the way he'd have responded to it if it had happened now. He probably would have gone to her table and joked about what a bad kisser he was. That or started making out with Sara Debris and letting her tell the others if he was all that bad or not. Sara would have backed his play, even at the time, had he done that. She loved him after all.

  It was so clear Tor nearly lost track of the conversation Trice was trying to start with him. How he'd never noticed it before he didn't know. Sara really loved him and had for a long time and he'd ignored her, more or less. He was really going to have to apologize to her sometime soon.

  "Tor! What are we going to do? We should take you home... or, I don't know, what should we do? I don't have a plan for this."

  Smiling he shrugged, enjoying the feeling of her body against his for a moment, but not too much, since his family was watching. Talk about awkward.

  "First I need to find out what's really going on here. I may not be able to do anything about it. It may just end up being an extra set of memories, not me being taken over, which is probably about the best case with this. If I start to go all monster crazy... I've set it up so that some of the Royal guards will try to take me out, if I can't do it myself." He held out his right hand as his mother and sister reacted to that. They didn't seem pleased, looking tense and concerned that he'd made a bad choice no doubt. Oddly enough Weasel just looked hard suddenly, jaw clenched and lips a thin line. After a few seconds he nodded firmly.

  He, it seemed, got it.

  Tor spoke to his mother directly, but reached out to snag Tiera's hand for a half second.

  "That's the very last thing that I'll try, I promise. There are a dozen other things to go through first, like getting with the Blue Ancient and seeing if she can help me fix this, or if one of the others has an idea. After that there are a lot of things to look into. If I have enough time, I might be able to remove it with magic for instance, or maybe Lyn can, if the clock starts winding down before I heal enough for that to work. Or maybe I can just learn to live with it? So far it really does just seem like memories for the most part. I can sink into them and kind of "pretend" to be Cordes, but it doesn't feel like I'm being buried, not yet. Unfortunately that could happen, even if the rest of this isn't a threat. Even if the Cordes copy in my head helps and tries not to take over, well, he was what, a thousand when he died? I'm not even twenty yet. Weigh that on the scales of life and I could find myself gone pretty quickly. It's not a given though. I'm definitely not giving in yet or even thinking it's going to the worst case. If it does go that way though, make sure that George has a good chance to take me down before I k
ill a bunch of people." The man was a better fighter than Tor, flat out, so if magic wasn't used on his part, it could really make a big difference. The Royal guard would be armed... That reminded Tor to take off his shield.

  He handed it to Trice, along with the Multi-weapon in his pocket. At least she didn't ask what he was doing. It was just common sense.

  "Did you try asking this Cordes in your head what he's planning to do?" Timon looked at him, his eyes bright, but face blank, almost steely in a way. He looked young, maybe ten or so, but was getting taller every day. Somehow he seemed to be growing a lot faster than Tor had. Then he wasn't anyone else, just himself. What made him up also made him immortal, but Gray had never had a son before. It could be that something along the line had altered her basic pattern so that her boys would end up taller. Maybe about six foot or so? Tor wasn't, but he wasn't Gray's son. He was Green.

  It might make a difference.

  "I haven't. Not at all. I should probably do that, shouldn't I? It just feels kind of crazy to try. I don't know if I get to have an actual conversation or anything, or if Cordes would tell me the truth, if the plan is to do bad things to me he wouldn't, but not asking won't help will it? Good idea." Closing his eyes he made an effort to think at the Cordes memories, tried to get a response that made any kind of sense. To his surprise he got one.

  Cordes didn't know.

  It was really clear that he didn't want to harm Tor, or steal his life from him. If it came to it, the presence was willing to be destroyed to save him. No questions asked, no hesitation. It felt real too, not like a trick or anything to buy time. The set of memories would seek its own destruction if it had to, just to save one boy.

  Tor spoke this out loud and then looked at Lyn, her eyes an emerald green right now, though they'd been brown when they first met, Tor thought. She was using a disguise amulet to change her appearance, not a lot, just dressing it up a little.

  It worked better than make-up.

  "So, what do you think, is he lying to me? Is this part of some vast plan to steal my life and take over the world? A way to buy time?" He didn't bother to fill in the blanks, they all got the idea.

  "I... how could I say? He wasn't a liar in life, not overly. Good at complex plans, but that doesn't let us know what he'd have done in a situation like this, does it? You said it seems like the memories are growing in chronological order as well... At the end he was different. Not well at all. If that's when he set this pattern up, then all bets are off anyway. We can't let that back into the world again. Especially not coupled with you Tor. Yesterday I thought you were potentially the most deadly person on the planet, but today you're ten times as dangerous. An insane Tor really can't be allowed to live. The world might not survive it. I'm not sure we could take you at that point either. Not for certain." She sounded so serious that his mother glared at her. She didn't say anything though.

  Tiera did.

  "But... that's not fair. Why should Tor have to pay for this, this is some kind of Ancient trick, so you old people should all fix it." The crossed arms and scared face worked enough so that no one pointed out to her that they were going to be trying that. It was the plan after all.

  It just probably wouldn't work.

  "Of course that assumes that I've got the only copy of Cordes in my head. Or that if there are more they're all the same. If it were me doing it, I'd have put out tens of thousands of the things, just to make certain some of them took. For all we know that's how the work got done to begin with, some other copy of him putting this all together. If that's the case we don't know how far this reaches. Cordes could already have control of the whole world for all we know. Maybe I'm just step three hundred and twelve or something. This doesn't seem like a random thing to me. Of course that could just be me being self important." Tor also didn't have enough information to go on yet. It was a mystery. A real one that had so many layers and possible players it sort of made his brain hurt. He couldn't trust that anyone was who they seemed to be, could he? Literally anyone could be some version of this Ancient King. Or even someone else. If Cordes could do it, who was to say some other Ancient hadn't done it too? Or more than one. There had been hundred of kids in the special programs. Maybe thousands. About a quarter of them had some form of extra longevity even. Hundreds or thousands of years to plot and plan.

  No one had a lot more to go on than that, but an argument started then, between Burks, Tiera and Laurie. Denno tried to interject some sense, but got shouted down by Tor's mom.

  "I don't think so Brown man! This is your fault too. If you hadn't sent assassins after us for years, who knows where we'd be now? Possibly safe at home or school, actually living our real lives and not stuck on a boat in the middle of an ocean going to the stronghold of our enemies! Which I might point out is your homeland." Her fist curled, which looked pretty violent, but Denno didn't shy away.

  "Those Larval weren't sent by me. Rest assured that none of us will let this go lightly. I'm certain we all will want to have Tor strong and ready to face the coming threat, even Cordes will want that, if he isn't insane. He really wasn't a bad person. Not selfish or petty either." He was trying to sound placating, but Trice whistled, a shrill thing that used her fingers to make the sound louder somehow.

  "Wait, what threat? Tor, or I mean, Cordes? I don't think that's really that big of a deal, not as long as we follow what Tor wants done. He seems to have a decent plan. Not one I like, but it really should stop him from hurting anyone. He even disarmed himself..." She held up his weapon as if shoeing them something they didn't know.

  Tor looked at her and shook his head.

  "Nope. Not me at all. Um... short handing it, there are three groups of craft coming from space and they may or may not be friendly. Some ancient mathematician worked out that anyone that can cross the far reaches of space would probably be hostile, so we have to get ready. They're about nineteen years away though, so we get a little time. If you want to know more, I suggest getting with Brown later and getting the whole run down. It can't hurt." Keeping it secret was foolish anyway. He was about to mention that to Brown when the man simply agreed with him.

  "That might be for the best Patricia. It's a real enough thing and largely an unknown, but being unprepared is the worst thing we could do and I'm not certain we aren't already too late. We don't have much time and most of the world isn't technologically advanced enough to stop invaders from space. They could just hit us with some rocks and we'd have to give up."

  Tiera piped up, her voice a little higher than normal.

  "Like a meteor storm? Or a comet hitting us? Only a lot of them?"

  Denno looked surprised.

  "You know about meteors?"

  The girl flipped her hair back with a wave of the hand and rolled her eyes at the man.

  "We have schools in Noram you know. You keep acting like we don't know what basic things are. I also know that space is a vacuum and that storks don't actually bring babies. Any other questions?" It was funny, but also horribly rude of her to say. Tor laughed anyway, not overly worried about how Denno felt at the moment.

  "Apologize Tiera, you're talking to your Great Uncle. That isn't proper to be flip with him, even if he did kind of deserve it." He didn't sound mean about it, but the girl flinched as if he'd raised his hand to slap her if she didn't comply.

  "Alright. I'm sorry I was rude sir. Still, we really do get some of this stuff. Just, why would anyone want to leave Earth? It's just about perfect, isn't it?" She seemed baffled, but no one explained the idea to her, she'd heard it before.

  Tor decided to change the topic.

  "Alright then, if we can all agree that I'm not going all insane monster right this second, we should get to work. We have dignitaries on the ship and all that. Besides, I'm thinking we should hold a baking contest in a day or two. See who actually has the right to claim the title of head baker on this boat." Maybe it would get their minds off things?

  Tor didn't think it would work and he was righ
t, but they all got to work without any more problems. No one mentioned the growing thing inside his head, but they watched him closely when they thought he wasn't looking, everyone but Carlos. He just gave orders. Not being short about it, but also not excepting any incompetence. Then he was used to working in the royal kitchen. You didn't go in there to play. By the time the meal was done and everyone had their fill, Tor was exhausted. He made up a plate for Ali, making sure to take her an extra piece of cake. It was a spice walnut that Tiera had made. Enough for everyone, but it was mainly eaten by the Royal guards and musicians. The Lairdgren kids each had some, but they all seemed gloomy about something.

  Well, he really had warned them they'd be washing dishes. Maybe he should duck his head in and take a turn too? He sat next to Farlo for a moment, and just asked what was wrong, in case it was something he hadn't thought of yet.

  The girl, who was already a foot taller than he was and rail thin, turned to him with tears in her eyes.

  "Trice told us, about the thing. We don't know what to do."

  It wasn't exactly enough information to go on.

  "Um, which thing Farlo? The fact that the Ancient King Cordes might be taking over my mind or the possible attack coming from space? Or was it some other thing? Like that some of us are going on to Vagus and you're staying for a bit with the Ambassador and her people in Austra to keep them safe?"

  It made a difference as to how he'd respond and a convenient excuse to fill them all in if anything had gotten missed. Better to have it all out early. That way if someone cut his head off, they'd understand why and not try to take retribution for his death. That these kids would if it came to it was something he understood now. They were his friends.

  "Both!"The voice was a little high pitched and loud, getting attention from everyone else in the room.

  "What do we do?"

  Tor looked down the table and took a deep breath. It was obvious, wasn't it?

  "Well, first we get with the Ancients and try to figure out what we'll need to stop an invasion like what might be coming. Tomorrow though. I want rested minds on this. After breakfast. As for the situation with me... Well, stand ready to help if you can, and if I need to die, make sure it happens. Let George or Kara do it if you can, but if they can't, if I'm too strong, or run away too fast... make sure it happens, no matter what. I don't want any of you to have to kill anyone, but better one person dies than a thousand or more." He put an arm around Farlo and hugged her to him, which reminded him to have a chat with everyone in the group and actually learn a bit about them. They were worth it, even if it was his last day alive.